Okay boys and girls, it looks like the final cuts to the US Defense budget have been made and it ain't pretty. Here's the mountain tops above 10,000ft version ...
No Ford class CVN slip ... but the sub force won't get two VA class for a year.
Marines won’t be happy with L class cuts/slips
LCS and JHSV both got slammed pretty hard on the budget mat, with major program cuts.
"To ensure sufficient resources to protect these strategic priorities, we will reduce the number of ships by slowing the pace of building new ships and by accelerating the retirement of some existing ships. These include:
- Retiring 7 cruisers early – 6 did not have ballistic missile defense (BMD) capability, and the seventh with BMD capability is in need of costly hull repairs )rmks: start saying your farewells to the Tico class).
- Slipping a large deck amphibious ship (LHA) by 1 year (rmks: America class LHA is being delayed).
- Slipping 1 new Virginia class submarine outside the FYDP (rmks: their no big surprise at their price tag).
- Reducing Littoral Combat Ships by 2 ships in the FYDP (rmks: The navy's fascination with these ships is beyond my).
- Reducing Joint High Speed Vessels by 8 in the FYDP (rmks: There is no joy at Austal and LMM today).
- Retiring 2 smaller amphibious ships (LSD) early and moving their replacement outside the FYDP. (rmks: They will likely go on the international market for resale. Australia may have its candidate for replacing the M/V Windermere.)
- Sea Basing gets a boost ... more MLPs or a different design (rmks: The marines consolation prize).
- "Funded development of a new afloat forward staging base that can be dedicated to support missions in areas where ground‐based access is not available, such as counter‐mine operations"
- And SSBN-X delayed...think this signals Ohios may get SLEP'd and fewer SSBN-X down the road...and this will stoke the calls to cancel Trident replacement in UK. (rmks: It looks like the Ohios are here to stay for a while longer).
"However, we will delay the new Ohio submarine replacement by two years without undermining our partnership with the UK. While this delay will create challenges in maintaining current at‐sea presence requirements in the 2030s, we believe this risk can be managed. An ongoing White House review of nuclear deterrence will address the potential for maintaining our deterrent with a different nuclear force." (rmks: The SSBN(X) is pushed-out to hopefully, better budgeting days).
The Navy needs to batten-down the budgeting hatching, as it looks like rough seas are ahead. This is only what's in store for this year. Lord only knows what 2013 and beyond looks like!
PS: Sorry about the title error, I wrote it will imbibing my first cup of coffee this morning.
Attached Files
-
012612_FINAL_Defense_Budget_Priorities.pdf 559.03K
38 downloads
Edited by TonyE, 27 January 2012 - 09:18 AM.
Added link to defense.gov
